Some year, this will catch up to the Tigers. They won’t escape the American League Division Series.

Flirting with disaster will actually result in disaster. It remains to be seen if this is the year.

And it was only one game. But what an awful game.

The Tigers surrendered to the pressure Thursday, getting routed 12-3 by the Baltimore Orioles in Game 1 of the ALDS.

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In the process, Tigers’ manager Brad Ausmus and starting pitcher Max Scherzer opened the door for second-guessing for not pitching around Nelson Cruz in the first and eighth innings with first base open. Cruz delivered three key RBI as a result

The Tigers bullpen imploded late. Surprised? Those clamoring for Joakim Soria as closer got a dose of why he hasn’t been in the role, despite the mediocrity (and that’s being kind) of Joe Nathan this season.

Soria has been throwing a 90 mph and flat fastball since joining the Tigers. It was inevitable he was going to get hit hard, especially in a band box ball park like Orioles Park at Camden Yards in the postseason.

And come on, if you live by Andrew Romine at shortstop, you are going to die by Andrew Romine at shortstop. He is a Triple-A player.

It wasn’t like his key error in the eighth inning was a shocker,

Starting pitching must be the Tigers’ calling card in the postseason. The Tigers needed more than Scherzer to just keep them in the game. They needed him to seize it, and win it.

He didn’t come close. He allowed five earned runs in 7 1-3 innings.

The Tigers got the up-and-down Scherzer, like he was before 2013, rather than premier version. He retired 13 hitters in a row at one point. He struck out the last three hitters he faced in the seventh inning.

Scherzer made two key mistakes, and they were glaring. With first base open, and on the brink of getting out of jam with a runner on third and two outs in the first, he didn’t pitch carefully to Tigers’ killer Cruz (six home runs two doubles in 2011 American League Championship Series), who homered. To start the seventh, Scherzer flipped a very hittable changeup to shortstop J.J. Hardy, who hammered the ball into the seats.

If there is an possible silver lining to this cloud, it’s the Tigers’ have been behind the 8-ball before in the ALDS.

They won the opener of the ALDS to Oakland last year, but fell behind in the series two games to one. They won in five.

In ’12, the Tigers won the first two games of the ALDS vs. Oakland, lost the next two and won the clincher.

In ’11, the Tigers lost the opener, and were pushed to a Game 5 – and still beat the New York Yankees.

All those Game 5 victories came on the road.

Even this regular season, the Tigers were written off how many times? It’s an organization that has displayed the ability to bounce back.

But there is no sugar coating the Tigers’ performance Thursday in Game One.

About the Author

Pat Caputo has written as a beat writer and sports columnist for The Oakland Press since 1984 and blogs at http://patcaputo.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at pat.caputo@oakpress.com
or follow Pat on Twitter: @PatCaputo98.